Reid: Take it as wed! GOLDEN GIRL OWES IT TO HUBBY
PARA ATHLETICS
STEF REID banished 11 years of championship hurt to finally claim world championship gold – then revealed it was all down to the two men in her life.
The 32-year-old Scot won the women’s T44 long jump with 5.40m – 11cm better than Marlene van Gansewinkel of Holland.
Reid has been competing since 2006 and the best she has managed is a couple of Paralympic silvers. She is married to Brent Lakatos, a 37-year-old Canadian wheelchair athlete and multiple world champion sprinter who recently smashed the 1,500m record.
Reid, who lost her right foot in a boating accident as a teenager, reckons Lakatos helped her onto the top of the world.
She said: “I started in 2006 – it’s now 2017 and I am finally in Discus F44, Dan Greaves (Men’s final 11.27am) (Men’s 100m T44, Jonnie Peacock 8.57pm) heat 7.10pm, final 200m T35 Maria Lyle (Women’s final, 8.10pm) 100m T42, Julie Rogers (Women’s final 9.35pm) 100m T13, Zak Skinner (Men’s 9.06pm) heat 11.30am, final the middle of the podium. “You wonder if you are always destined to be silver, but if you believe that then you may as well retire now. “I still believe that there is more for me. It’s because I have been able to watch my husband progress beyond anything we thought possible at his age, to go from a sprinter to taking out the 1,500m world record. It’s part of the benefit of being married to such an incredible person.” Reid’s career turned around two years ago when she hooked up with coach Aston Moore, a former GB triple jumper. Reid said: “I remember when I first started Para sport and I stood on the track and, let’s be honest, nobody wanted to coach the chubby girl with one foot. But Aston just got it all. It was his first dive into Para sport and he has absolutely loved it. “It has always been my ambition that, when somebody watches me jump, they say ‘Wow, she’s an amazing jumper’, not just ‘She’s amazing for an amputee’.” Britain’s Zachary Shaw failed to qualify from his T12 100m semi-final for athletes with visual impairment.